Carl Sandburg Biography

An American poet, singer of folk songs and ballads, and biographer, Carl
Sandburg is best known for his biography of Abraham Lincoln
(1809–1865)

Carl Sandburg.

and his early verse celebrations of Chicago, Illinois.

Son of Swedish immigrants

Carl August Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on January 6,
1878, the second of August Sandburg and Clara Mathilda Anderson's
seven children. His parents had both come to the United States from
Sweden; his father worked as a blacksmith's assistant. Sandburg
liked to read and decided at age six that he wanted to be a writer, but
he left school after finishing eighth grade to work at a series of jobs.
Sandburg was brought up in a largely Republican household, but events
such as the local railway workers' strikes and the Chicago
Haymarket riots of 1886 got him interested in social justice.

Sandburg traveled extensively through the West, where he began
developing a love of the country and its people. Following eight months
of service in the army, Sandburg entered Lombard (now Knox) College in
Galesburg. There he wrote his first poetry and was encouraged by
Professor Philip Green Wright, who privately published several volumes
of his poems and essays.

Early writings

Sandburg left Lombard without graduating and eventually moved to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where in 1907 and 1908 he was district organizer
for the Social Democratic Party in the state. In 1907 he met Lilian
Steichen, a schoolteacher, and they were married in 1908. From 1910 to
1912 Sandburg served as secretary to Milwaukee's Socialist
(believing in collective ownership of the means of producing goods and
services) mayor Emil Seidel. Later he moved to Chicago, becoming an
editorial writer for the
Daily News
in 1917. Meanwhile his verse began appearing in
Poetry
magazine;
Chicago Poems
was published in 1916. He made his reputation as a poet of the American
scene with
Cornhuskers
(1918),
Smoke and Steel
(1920), and
Slabs of the Sunburnt West
(1922).

Sandburg's early writings dealt with his belief in social justice
and equality and were written in such a way that they barely resembled
what most people thought of as poetry. "I Am the People, the
Mob" from the
Chicago Poems
is an example. The ending of the poem is similar to the style of Walt
Whitman (1819–1892): "When I, the People, learn to
remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no
longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a
fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name:
'The People,' with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or
any far-off smile of derision [ridicule]. The mob—the
crowd—the mass—will arrive then."

Sandburg's early poetry not only tended toward unshaped imitation
of real life but also copied other poets as well. Sandburg's
"Happiness" is somewhat similar to Ezra Pound's
(1885–1972) "Salutation," and Sandburg's
"Fog" was compared to T. S. Eliot's
(1888–1965) "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,"
which had appeared the year before "Fog" was published.
Seventy-three previously uncollected Sandburg poems from the 1910s can
be found in
Poems for the People
(1999).

Later work

From 1926 to 1939 Sandburg devoted himself mainly to writing the
six-volume biography of President Abraham Lincoln, presenting Lincoln as
a symbol of the American spirit; Sandburg received a Pulitzer Prize in
history for this work (1939). He also collected the folk songs that made
up
The American Songbook
(1927).

Honey and Salt
(1963), a remarkable achievement for a "part-time" poet
in his eighties, contains much of Sandburg's best poetry. Here
the mellowness and wisdom of age are evident, and the poems are more
effective than his earlier verse. By this time Sandburg had developed
and begun to express a deeply felt sympathy and concern for actual
people. Tenderness replaces sentimentality; controlled feelings replace
defensive "toughness." There is also a religious element
in these last poems that does not appear in Sandburg's earlier
work.

Sandburg also collected folk songs and toured the country singing his
favorites. He published a collection of these songs, called
The American Songbag.
Other Sandburg works include a collection of children's stories,
Rootabaga Stories
(1922);
Good Morning, America
(1928);
The People, Yes
(1936);
Collected Poems
(1950), which won a Pulitzer Prize; and
Harvest Poems, 1910–1960
(1960).
Remembrance Rock
(1948), a sweeping view of American history, was his only novel.
Sandburg died in Flat Rock, North Carolina, on July 22, 1967.